METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DISTRIBUTING CONSUMER ADVERTISEMENTS

• US 20100058383A1
• Filed: 09/02/2008
• Published: 03/04/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/02/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Chang, E-Lee, Tan, Tuck Seng, Stefanik, John R., Khandelwal, Madhur, Clayton, Darnell, Bradley, Charles Patrick
• Granted Patent: US 8,544,039 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/35
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1859 adapted to provide push services, e.g. data channels
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/106 across networks, e.g. mapping telephone numbers to data network addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2543 Billing , e.g. for subscription services payment schemes, architectures or protocols G06Q20/00; e-commerce G06Q30/00; arrangements for billing for the use of broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/21
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25883 being end-user demographical data, e.g. age, family status or address arrangements for identifying locations of users in broadcast systems H04H60/52
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2668 Creating a channel for a dedicated end-user group, e.g. insertion of targeted commercials based on end-user profiles information retrieval from the Internet by querying with filtering and personalisation G06F16/9535; arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast H04H20/10; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; adaptation of message content in packet-switching networks H04L51/063
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47815 Electronic shopping payment schemes, payment architectures or payment protocols for electronic shopping systems G06Q20/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6582 Data stored in the client, e.g. viewing habits, hardware capabilities, credit card number arrangements where receivers interact with the broadcast H04H20/38
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a set-top box (STB) having a controller to present a plurality of advertisement categories, detect a selection of one of the plurality of advertisement categories, present an advertisement template associated with the selected advertisement category, detect a plurality of entries in the advertisement template for constructing a consumer classified advertisement, generate an advertisement graphical user interface (GUI) corresponding to the entries, detect one or more demographic patterns in the plurality of entries, identify a plurality of users of a media communication system from which the STB operates according to the detected one or more demographic patterns, and provide the plurality of users of the media communication system accessibility to the advertisement GUI. Other embodiments are disclosed.

Claims

1. A set-top box (STB), comprising a controller to:

present a plurality of advertisement categories;

detect a selection of one of the plurality of advertisement categories;

present an advertisement template associated with the selected advertisement category;

detect a plurality of entries in the advertisement template for constructing a consumer classified advertisement;

generate an advertisement graphical user interface (GUI) corresponding to the entries;

detect one or more demographic patterns in the plurality of entries;

identify a plurality of users of a media communication system from which the STB operates according to the detected one or more demographic patterns; and

provide the plurality of users of the media communication system accessibility to the advertisement GUI.

2. The STB of claim 1, wherein the controller is adapted to notify at least a portion of the plurality of users of the generated consumer classified advertisement.

3. The STB of claim 1, wherein the controller is adapted to:

present an offer to demographically target users of the media communication system with the advertisement GUI; and

notify a billing system responsive to detecting an affirmative acceptance of the offer.

4. The STB of claim 1, wherein the controller is adapted to:

present the plurality of users an auctioning process for submitting bids for purchasing a good or a service presented in the advertisement GUI;

receive one or more bids from at least a portion of the plurality of users; and

present the one or more bids.

5. The STB of claim 4, wherein the controller is adapted to:

receive an identification of a user of the STB that generated the consumer classified advertisement; and

present the one or more bids to the user.

6. The STB of claim 5, wherein the controller is adapted to present the user the one or more bids by way of a media presentation device operably coupled to the STB.

7. The STB of claim 5, wherein the identification of the user corresponds to at least in part a communication identifier of a communication device of said user, and wherein the controller is adapted to transmit the presentation of the one or more bids to the communication device according to the communication identifier.

8. The STB of claim 7, wherein the communication identifier comprises one of an E.164 number or a session initiation protocol uniform resource identifier (SIP URI).

9. The STB of claim 1, wherein the controller is adapted to:

detect one or more psychographic patterns with the plurality of entries;

identify the plurality of users of the media communication system according to the detected one or more demographic and psychographic patterns.

10. The STB of claim 9, wherein the plurality of users have a consumption behavioral profile that is at least similar to the detected one or more demographic and psychographic patterns.

11. The STB of claim 1, wherein the media communication system monitors a consumption behavior of each of its users and determines therefrom at a demographic profile of its users.

12. The STB of claim 1, wherein the media communication system corresponds to an Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) communication system, an IPTV communication system, a cable TV communication system, a satellite TV communication system, or combinations thereof.

13. A network element of a media communication system, comprising a controller to:

receive from a media processor a request to advertise a good or a service of a user of the media processor;

present the media processor with a plurality of advertisement categories;

detect from the media processor a selection of one of the plurality of advertisement categories;

present the media processor with an advertisement template associated with the selected advertisement category;

detect at the media processor a plurality of entries in the advertisement template;

generate an advertisement user interface (UI) corresponding to the entries;

detect one or more behavioral patterns in at least one of the plurality of entries and other sources of demographic data associated with the user;

identify a plurality of subscribers of the media communication system with a behavioral profile similar to the detected one or more behavioral patterns; and

distribute the advertisement UI to the identified plurality of subscribers.

14. The network element of claim 13, wherein the media processor comprises a set-top box (STB), a computer terminal, a web server, or combinations thereof, and wherein the controller is adapted to present a preview of the advertisement UI by way of the media processor.

15. The network element of claim 13, wherein the controller is adapted to distribute the advertisement UI by providing passive accessibility to the advertisement UI by way of a media processor of each of the plurality of subscribers.

16. The network element of claim 13, wherein the controller is adapted to distribute the advertisement UI by notifying each of the plurality of subscribers of a service or product offered in the advertisement UI.

17. The network element of claim 13, wherein the controller is adapted to:

present at the media processor an offer to demographically target subscribers of the media communication system with the advertisement UI; and

record a fee applied to a billing statement of the media processor responsive to detecting an affirmative acceptance of the offer.

18. The network element of claim 13, wherein the controller is adapted to:

present the plurality of subscribers an auctioning process for submitting bids for purchasing a good or a service presented in the advertisement UI;

receive one or more bids from at least a portion of the plurality of subscribers; and

present the one or more bids.

19. The network element of claim 18, wherein the controller is adapted to:

receive an identification of a user of the media processor; and

present the one or more bids to the user.

20. The network element of claim 19, wherein the controller is adapted to present the user the one or more bids by way of a media presentation device operably coupled to the media processor.

21. The network element of claim 19, wherein the identification of the user corresponds to a communication identifier of a communication device of said user, wherein the controller is adapted to transmit the presentation of the one or more bids to the communication device according to the communication identifier, and wherein the communication identifier comprises one of an E.164 number or a session initiation protocol uniform resource identifier (SIP URI).

22. The network element of claim 13, wherein the media communication system corresponds to an Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) communication system, an IPTV communication system, a cable TV communication system, a satellite TV communication system, or combinations thereof, and wherein the plurality of entries comprises at least in part one or more links to other webpage UIs that include media content, advertisements, or a combination thereof.

23. The network element of claim 13, wherein the other sources of demographic data comprise at least one of usage behavior data collected from one or more communication devices of the user, usage behavior data collected from subscriber account information of the user, and usage behavior data collected from user preferences supplied by the user.

24. A method, comprising distributing advertisements in an interactive television (iTV) system, wherein the advertisements are generated by subscribers of the iTV system by way of a media processor communicatively coupled to the iTV system.

25. The method of claim 24, comprising:

providing the subscribers of the iTV system access to a library of advertisement graphical user interfaces (GUIs) for presenting advertisements in the iTV system;

determining from content associated with a customized advertisement GUI generated by a subscriber a behavioral pattern;

identifying a portion of subscribers of the iTV system with a behavioral profile similar to the detected behavioral pattern; and

distributing the advertisement GUI to the identified portion of subscribers.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the media processor comprises a set-top box (STB), a computer terminal, a web server, or combinations thereof, and wherein the iTV system corresponds to an IPTV communication system, a cable TV communication system, a satellite TV communication system, or combinations thereof, wherein the detected behavioral pattern corresponds to a demographic pattern, a psychographic pattern or a combination thereof, and wherein the method comprises distributing the advertisement GUI to the identified portion of subscribers with metadata supplied by the subscriber that generated the advertisement GUI to enhance the presentation and search experience of the identified portion of subscribers.